Are you even human?
by HeyyImInsaneAboutAnime
Summary: A new girl joins the original 4. Bill seems to have a soft spot for her, but he won't share why. He seems to know her. She's different from everyone else, like a Hunter but human. When they reach a safe zone, they can't believe what the doctor tells them.
1. Chapter 1: The New Girl

_Who's that in my mirror? Who's that at my door? Who are all the people, I've seen before? I see them in my dreams. I can't help but feel, like I've been here before, it's all so very real. What is this place? The opera of my mind? A never ending space beyond the confines of time._

_How can it be? What did I do? To be here again, facing you._

_Here I go around again, I'm spinning out of time. If I stop believing you now will you disappear from sight?_

_In the stillness, there's only light. In a vast desert with patches of ice. I see you in a mirage, out the corner of my eye. Everytime I look though, you vanish, why?_

_How can it be? What did you do? For me to be here again, without you. _

_Here I go around again, I'm spinning out of time. If I start believing now, will you come back in sight?_

_~Frenchy and The Punk (Bonjour Batfrog, Mirror Mirror)_

_*All copyright goes to Frenchy and the Punk*_

* * *

Chapter 1: The New Girl

Francis grabs Bill by the arm. "What the hell, Francis?" the old man says, shooting infected running at them.

"Two things," the biker responds, sounding serious for once. "There's a girl in that blue house, and there's a witch in front of the door." Bill follows Francis's pointing finger to a house not to far from them, a witch crying in front of the door.

And a curtain pulled back on the next level, revealing a girl with pleading eyes.

Turning to the rest of the group, Bill had a hard look frozen on his face. Zoey and Louis stood with there guns pointing over the old man.

"There's a girl in that blue house over there. If your eyes aren't broken, you can see there's a witch in front of the doorway," he says. "Zoey, your going to have to go inside the house to retrieve the girl. Francis is going to shoot the damn thing and we'll help him after it gets up. Zoe, your going to have to run and gun when it gets up and starts running." He turns around to look back at the house. "There's a safe place up ahead! Let's get her there!"

Running, Francis starts shooting the witch. She stops crying and looks around. Looking straight at the running Francis, the witch starts to get up and run. "NOW!" screams Bill, and the air is pierced with the sound of firing. The witch starts running after Francis all the way down the street, while Louis and Bill shoot at her. Zoey and Francis run and gun.

As Zoey disappears into the doorway, Louis prays to god that she'll live.

Bill only watches the window. When Francis starts to shoot the witch, the girls eyes grew big. When the witch hit the ground, she smiled. And when Zoey disappeared into the house, the curtain fell closed and the shadow of the girl disappeared.

After a few moments of waiting, Zoey and the other girl emerged from the doorway. The new girl had a black book-bag slung over her shoulder, and dual pistols in her hands.

A girl like Zoey,

thought Bill happily. _A friend for Zoey. _

They walk into the safe room, the new girl closing it loudly behind her. Francis starts to barricade the door. The girl walks over to the other door and sits down. She leans against it, the bag sitting in her lap. Zoey sits down next to her, setting their guns in the new girls bag.

Smiling at Bill, Zoey calls the group over and everyone stands in front of the girls.

"Okay, everyone, this is Nellie," she says. She turns to 'Nellie'. Pointing at each person when she says their names, Zoey continues, "And Nellie, these people are the rest of the group. Louis, the assistant manger. Francis, the biker. And Bill, the old man." They giggle with each other. "Kidding, kidding. Bill might be old, but don't let that underestimate you. He's used to be in the war, and has a good shot." Zoey smiles happily. "Welcome to the family, Nellie."

Bill smiles a little bit.

"Yeah, welcome."

Francis slaps Louis's back. "Yeah welcome new girl!" he exclaimed.

Louis has a pink color to his cheeks. "Welcome Nellie," he says, avoiding eye contact.

Nellie and Zoey giggle at him, tears forming at the end of Nellie's eyes.


	2. Chapter 2: Nellie's Backstory

Chapter 2: Nellie's Backstory

Nellie runs her hand through her hair. She stares out the safe door window, watching the zombies mill around the street.

Francis snores loudly across the room.

She hugs her knees to her chest. She feels a hand touch her shoulder and she jumps. A chuckle from behind her. Nellie looks to see who it is, and Bill stands in front of her, lighting a cigarette and chuckling lightly.

He puts the light cigarette into his mouth and the lighter into his pocket. He sits next to Nellie, the smoke starting to curl toward the ceiling.

"I thought you were sleeping?" whispers Nellie, so quiet he hardly hears her.

"Wasn't sleeping well. Besides," he says and points at the night sky. "Not every day you get to appreciate the moon in this damn thing." He lets his hand drop to his side. A few moments pass by, and suddenly he blurts out, "So what's your story?" She looks at him weird before responding.

"My story? You mean before this whole damn thing happened? Or the reason why I was in that house with a witch in front of the door?" she asks. Bill shrugged.

"Whichever you feel like sharin'."

Nellie thinks and rests her head on her kneecaps. Hugging her legs closer to her body, she starts to talk. "The story I feel like sharin'... Well I guess I'll try to make this interesting.

"I never was very popular in school. I never was very smart in school stuff, either. The only thing I was smart on was video games, mostly zombie based video games. So when this hit, I was glad I did what I did, researching all types of zombies. So when my parents started to mutate, I knew what they would become." Tears start to fill her eyes, threatening to pour over any second if she continued. "My mother was going to become a witch, while my father was becoming a hunter." She pauses. "My mother started a journal before I kicked her out because of her becoming a witch. I found it after she turned, and I now know how a witch works." Nellie pauses once again. "Twelve hours after your first bit, the infection decides what you will become: witch, regular, hunter, tank, boomer, or smoker. So my moms decided she would be a witch. If you read her journal, she said about constant headaches and a voice that wasn't her own. She talked about a constant urge for sugar. She said something about becoming depressed. Later, she says that she wanted to cry more and more and want sugar more and more. Days began to blend together and soon she didn't recognize me or my father. This was close to the time when she began to turn. On one entry, it told of the feeling of her claws growing in and shredding her clothes. That was the last entry, I saw her the next day and kicked her out because I knew what she was becoming. That's answering both: My story and about the witch." Tears are streaming down her face.

Bill scoots closer to her. He puts his arm around her and scoots her closer.

She continues through the tears.

"My father was a different story, after twelve hours his mutation was much faster. He became more agile all of a sudden. And I knew he was becoming a hunter. I wasn't sure what to do. I wanted him to stay, but I knew that he was turning and fast. Any second he could lunge at me. So I talked to my mom... and she let him outside herself. A few moments later, I heard a hunter cry. And I knew I had made the right choice."

Tears were coming in pools now, and she was hiccupping. Bill knew that if she continued at this pace, she would wake up Francis.

Making sure everyone was still asleep, Bill brings Nellie into a hug. She cries softly into his shoulder, feeling comforted by the old man's presence.

He pet her hair until she stops crying. He pulls her face away.

Bill's hands rest on her cheeks.

"Are you okay, Nellie?" he asks.

She slowly nods and rubs her eyes with the back of her hands. "Yeah, Bill," she responds, sniffling.

"Yeah, I have to be okay."

Bill might not have noticed, but Francis's snores had ceased a bit ago.


	3. Chapter 3: Francis

Chapter 3: He hates a lot of things, but she isn't one

Francis sits up when he hears Bill go back to bed. He sits down next to Nellie. She is hugging her legs and her face is red. "What's with the males in this group not sleeping?" she whispers under breath. She laughs a little bit.

Francis follows were she is staring, and finds her staring at the moon.

"Hey, Nellie, you okay there?" he asks. She sighs.

"I'm okay," she responds. She looks up at the ceiling. "I have to be okay, I need to be okay for my parents. They would want me to be okay." She shuts her eyes and holds them closed, her head facing the ceiling. "I'll always be okay."

Francis cringes. He was actually feeling bad for the girl he didn't even know.

Is this girl like Zoey?

Francis thinks angrily.

He pats Nellie on the back. She opens her eyes and looks over at the biker. Her eyes looks grateful for the small comfort. She gulps and looks back at the moon.

"So you heard my story?"

He looks at her, surprised she figured out he was awake so quickly. "Yeah," he says and follows her gaze once again. "Your stories a lot different then I'd expect. A lot different from the rest of us."

Nellie and Francis turn to look at each other at the same time. She smiles gently.

"Oh really, then what's your story?"

He sighs. "Really?"

His guard was down, he wasn't acting like the person he always was in front of Zoey. No, he was acting like a nice guy. Like the real him.

Francis sighs again. "Well let's see. Before this all happened, I had tried to steal a flat-screen TV. Well, I started to boast to my friends when one of them pointed out that they didn't allow visits, I decided I wasn't going to waste anymore time, and I took my girlfriend into the back room. Yeah, we kissed. But she got sick on me. I was going to leave, but she talked me into staying. Well, she turned into one of those bastards and bit me. My friend killed her and we finally figured out that most people were like her and weren't ever going to considered humans again. So I got a jukebox and decided to have fun while killing them. But my friends weren't like me and they turned after getting bit. I found this group a day later, and I haven't left them yet," he says. "Good?"

Nellie giggles while he tells his story. Growing sad when he said he had a girlfriend, but giggle when he said she got sick on him. She smiled happily when he said that his friend killed her. She was happy when he said he was going to have fun.

"Good," she responds.

She yawns and stretches.

"Do you want to switch? I've been up during all of Bill's watch and all of mine. I really need to sleep," Nellie says and he nods. She smiles. "Thanks, Francis." She goes to stand when she pauses and hugs his arm. "Your not that bad."

Francis nods and says, "Night Nellie."

She falls asleep under the table, hugging a journal. He gets up and slowly takes it from under her sleeping arms. He traces the gold letters with his hungry eyes.

'Elizabeth Jade'

He opens the journal to find the first entry about Nellie and her family.

Francis smiles. "Nellie Jade," he says under his breath. "Beautiful."

_There are many things I hate_,

Francis thinks. _But I don't think she's ever going to be one._

* * *

**_Authors Note_**

_It's coming along slowly, I know. But don't worry, it'll get there some chapter. Let's show you what this story will sometime be._

_So, first there will be-_

_Bonding with Nellie_

_Then- _

_Going to the airport_

_Next- _

_Airport runway finale_

_Next will be going to the safe zone and the then the doctor visit _

_It'll be more interesting into words. _

_Well, that's all I'll be sharing so far. _

_By the way, the campaign this story based off of is Dead Air. _

_And yes, it will probably be Francis x Nellie_

_The next chapter shall be longer_


	4. Chapter 4: The safe house

Chapter 4: The safe house

Louis was the one who woke the group the next morning.

While getting ready, the males stayed in the bigger room, while the girls went into the bathroom.

Nellie and Zoey giggled with eachother as they got changed and did their busniess while Bill, Louis, and Francis did the same in the bigger room, minus the giggling.

After about half an hour, everyone was about ready to walk out the door. Everyone but Bill. He needed to ask Nellie something.

"Hey, Nellie, I need to talk to you," Bill said and grabbed Nellie by the arm. He walked her to the bathroom and shut the door after them.

"What's wrong, Bill?" asked Nellie, reloading her pistols.

"Nellie, did something happen last night when I went to sleep?" he asked bluntly.

She shook her head.

"No, unless you count Francis taking watch," she calmly said. "That's really all that happened."

Bill shook his head and murmured something under his breath. He avoided looking at Nellies eyes. "Are you sure that's all that happened?" he asked.

Nellie sighs. _It's like he doesn't trust me. And he's been acting like he's hiding something from me... _

She nods quickly. "Yes, Bill," she said and looked sadly at him. "Why, do you not trust me?"

"No I trust you," said Bill quickly. "I just don't trust that son of a bitch..."

"Francis?" Nellie says, shocked. "Why don't you trust him?"

Bill doesn't answer.

He opens the door and leaves, leaving Nellie behind.

Now I know he's hiding something from me... But what?

She walks out the door and Zoey runs up next to her. "Did Bill do something to you?" she whispers with concern in her voice, while holding Nellies arm. "He came out looking pissed. Did he do anything to you?" Nellie shook her head.

"No, not really. He just lied to me, that's all," she said and Zoey let go, holding her hands over her mouth. Nellie kept on walking.

She walks past Bill, not even glancing at him, and walks straight to Francis. She grabs his arm and drags him to the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her.

She turns around and looks Francis in the eye. "Why doesn't Bill trust you?" she asks. "He never answered, so I'm asking you straight forward."

Francis never saw a girl so angry in his life. Her eyes had flames and her hands were in fists. She was not a happy-camper.

"Calm down, Nellie," he says and pats her head. "It's not a story or I did anything to him. It's just the fact that I am a biker and got in lotsa trouble before all of this happened."

Nellie sighs and rests her hands on his arms.

"I thought that you did something to him for a second there," she says and looks into his eyes, and he could tell she was sad. "But I know he's still hiding something from me. He won't look me in the eyes."

Francis inhales and glances at the door.

"I have no idea what he's hiding Nellie," he says and sighs. "He's a man of mystery."

She sighs and lets him go.

"Go," she says. "You don't want them to think that you love me, do you?"

Francis looks at her and slowly walks to the door. He opens the door and left her behind like Bill had done minutes ago.

He shut the door after him.

"The only person who ever loved me other than my family was... Nick..."

She sighs.

"Nobody's very trustworthy in this damn group," Nellie murmurs and takes the bag off of her shoulder. She pulls out an IPod on full battery and headphones. She plucks them into her ears and turns a song on.

Pulling one out of her ear, she opens the bathroom door and looks around the room. Louis and Francis stood in one side, glancing around the room. Bill and Zoey sat on the other side of the room, whispering to each other until she came out the door.

Bill glances up.

"It's late, we're going to have to stay here overnight," he says.

Nellie smiles to herself and sits in the middle of the room. She whispers the lyrics to a song while Zoey and Bill talk. Francis sleeps and Louis stares out the door.

* * *

After a bit, Zoey came over to Nellie and sat beside her.

"What are you singing?" she asks.

Nellie glances over.

"Deify," she says. "Disturbed."

"Deify, by Disturbed?" Zoey asks.

Nellie nods and glances at Zoey.

"Are you okay, Nellie? You seem upset..." Zoey says.

Nellie sniffs and stares at her lap. "I have to be, Zoey... for them..."

Tears form at the corners of her eyes.

"Answer me truthfully, Nellie. I know your upset. Why?"

Nellie turns so she is facing Zoey and starts crying. "The truth? I'm upset. I'm not okay. I haven't been. Bill lied to me, my parents died, the whole world is dead... And I don't remember anything about my family other than my parents... There's something I'm forgetting, I know there is. I remember playing at my grandparents house when I was very little, but I can't remember their faces. I don't remember what they looked like. I know I spent my summers there and I can't remember them..." Zoey was hugging Nellie by now, she was crying hard. "There's something wrong with my brain, Zoey. And I don't know what or how to fix it... Please, Zoey, please help me..."

Nellie was balling, crying while Zoey held her tight. Francis woke up and Bill watched her in horror. Francis did, after he realized what was happening.

(#)

After a few minutes, Nellie calmed down.

"So, what do you remember?" Zoey asks.

"Well, I remember that when I was little, I would spend my summers with my grandparents," she says. "I remember that there used to be a guy that I used to spend my time with, his name was Ellis. He told me he had to move and he did, but it turned out that he was moving right next to the house that you first saw me in. So we became neighbors and best friends. We went to the same school and had the same classes. I became friends with all the males at that school, because he was. He was always a people person... Well, anyway, I remember one day him telling me that he loved me while I was at my grandparents. My grandfather was so shocked, I remember he was looking over my shoulder. My grandmother was so happy, but that soon changed because my grandfather had a heart-attack. They told me he died, but his docter told me that he didn't trust my family with the life of my grandfather. He told me that my grandfather would be taken away, and I was to never tell my family if I wanted my grandfather to live. I remember him saying that to do this, he was going to have to take away any memories that I ever had of him. But I would remember that moment when I was needed to..." She pauses and looks at the floor. "I remember that Ellis ran away with another girl and two other guys the other day..." She looks up to Zoey. "Have you guys run into any other groups?"

Zoey thinks. "Yeah.." she says.

"Really?"

Zoey nods. "I met this one group before coming to this one. It had four people. Lets see," she says and thinks. "There was another female, black, her name was Rochelle. The rest where male. There was Coach, black, and fat. Hmmm... there was Nick, who looks cute but complains about everything. And then there was...!" Zoey jumps up. "There was an Ellis!" she says.

Nellie smiles.

"Well, explain to me what he was like," she says.

Zoey nods. "Well, he was very nice. He was always talking about some guy named Keith, and he lived in Savanah," she says. "He always wore a hat and before we left, we went to a place called 'Kiddyland'. He said he'd been there before when he was young."

Nellie smiles and nods.

"I remember Keith. He was so stupid..."

Zoey smiles.

"Hey, Zoe?"

"What?"

"Did they say anything about where they were planning to head?" Nellie asks. Zoey nods.

"They were heading to where we are going: the safe place. Everyone is," she says. "Why?"

Nellie stands and stretches. "I haven't seen him in forever... not since he left with that group you told me about."

* * *

The Next Day

Nellie was up early and ready to go. She had to wait another few minutes until the rest of the group woke up and got ready, also.

They stand in a circle, reloading the guns they held.

"Is everyone ready?" asks Bill.

They nod and he turns to face the door. Bill opens the door, immeditly shooting the infected in front of him. The infected a few feet from them looks over and runs. The group moves as a pack, reacting to every movement and sound as one.

After a few moments, every infected was dead. Bill steps out of the room, Francis following quickly behind him. Nellie comes next, Zoey fourth, Louis last. They stop and walk out.

They walk down an ally. "Where are we?" asks Nellie.

"An unfinished construction site," Louis says.

"A place for a bunch of infected," Francis complains.

Nellie smiles and walks to the front of the group next to Bill."Let's go," she says and runs.

"Nellie no!" all of them scream in unison.

"Listen to me," she screams back. "When I was little dad had something implanted in me. I've been like this ever since." Infected come from around the corner. She smiles and jumps into the air. She hits one of their heads and starts shooting the others, jumping from infected to infected. The group shot some, but Nellie did most of the job. Once she was standing on the last one, she points her guns down. "Die." She whispers and shots. The body falls and she jumps off and hits the ground. "Now where do we go?"

"Looks like we go there," Zoey says and points to a barricade. "We can probably use fire."

"It figures, the only thing in the damn city not on fire is the one thing we need to burn down!" Francis says and walks inside the building. They grab a few cans and walk them to the barricade.

"Now get back," Nellie says. "I promise I won't do what I did. There's going to be a horde, to many of them. They'd drag me into the middle of it."

"Hey, wait. Before we shoot, I need to talk to Nellie," Bill says. She smiles and shoots.

"Sorry, Bill, I don't want to be trapped here," she says. "You can talk to me at the base, it's safe there. Perfectly safe. Sorry, but that safe room does have somethings wrong."

Just then, the horde comes running. They shoot, Nellie hiding in the background shooting the ones that got past the group and to her.

Minutes later, the horde is down and they are breathing heavily.

"What was that?" Bill asks Nellie as they sit and catch their breath.

She smiles. "I wanted to get to the safe house as quick as possible. I don't know about you, but I don't want to spend a night out here."

"We've done it multiple time with witches, figuring stuff out and such," Zoey responds and gets up. "We need to go now."

Francis gets up and groans. "Don't we always 'have to go now'?" he questions and smiles. "Let's go old man."

"Be quiet," Bill says and stands. Louis follows, staring at Nellie. He is blushing.

"Let's just go," Nellie says and jumps out the window and hits the floor. She walks over to the barricade and the group follows. "Okay, back in formation." Bill and Francis go back in front of Nellie, and Zoey and Louis stay behind her.

They walk down the ally as the infected come running at them. Only Bill shoots, because the rest of the group was afraid they would shoot him. Francis kept complaining that his arms hurt. Once they were out of the ally, lots more infected seem to pop up out of every corner. Nellie and Zoey check each building for signs of Ellis and his group. Each building turns up negative for them.

Before they move forward, Francis pulles Bill aside.

"Why are you being all protective of the girls?" Francis whispers.

"I don't want them to get hurt by you. Louis I can trust but you I can't with them girls hearts," he responds and stares coldly at the other man.

Nellie walks over. "Like I said before, we can have these moments at the base. We have to get there before anything else," she says and drags Francis by the arm away from Bill. "Now let's get to that safe house."

They walk through the road and into the grounds of a power plant. They shoot the infected and countinue to walk. They then reach the parking garage.

"Great-"

"Don't even bother complaining, hotshot," Nellie says. "I am not in the mood." Francis keeps quiet and the rest of the group smiles.

The group shoots the infected in the darkness. They go up level by level, working their way up to the top. Once they are there, they enter the safe room and drop to the ground. Nellie closes and blocks up the door.

"Are you happy now, Nellie?" Francis complains. "Sorry, had to get that out." He drops to the ground and slumps against the wall.

"Very. I didn't want to spend the rest of the day stuck out there in that hell. Now we can relax and talk everything out. Bill, this is the base for the day, so you can tell me what you wanted to tell me now."

"I can wait until we reach the real base," he responds and puts out his cigarette. He then lights a new one and put it in his mouth. "Can't live without a smoke," he grumbles as Nellie slides to the ground and sighs.

* * *

_**Authors Note**_

_Sorry it's been so long. I've had so much to do. I was moving and my moms computer had this chapter on it (not on the interwebs) so I could only write it there. Now that I've moved everything's okay so I'll try writing more often than this. _

_Thanks for putting up with this for so long. _


End file.
